Introduction

Online discussion boards are a common means of communication in online, blended, and hybrid courses, but they are also a tool used to enhance teaching and learning in a variety of contexts. Use the activities and resources on this page to identify important pedagogical recommendations for effective discussions and to learn the steps for creating and managing discussions in your course.

On This Page:

Recommendations for facilitating online discussions
Create a discussion in your course
Manage course discussions

Recommendations for facilitating online discussions

Visit our Facilitating Online Discussions page to explore pedagogical principles and recommendations to help you facilitate effective online discussions.

Create a discussion in your course

Practice creating a discussion thread in your Canvas sandbox by following the steps in any of the resources below; choose to view video or text-based tutorials depending on your personal learning preference.

Review the following tutorials to learn more about creating Discussions and using the Discussion Index Page:

How do I use Discussions Redesign as an instructor? (External resource)
How do I create a discussion as an instructor? (External resource)

Discussions Overview video, 5m 19s

Follow the steps in the tutorials below if you would like to allow students to attach files to their discussion posts, create their own course discussions, or edit and delete their own discussion posts:

How do I allow students to attach files to a course discussion? (External resource)
How do I allow students to create a course discussion? (External resource)
How do I allow students to edit and delete their own discussion posts in a course? (External resource)

You can also assign a non-graded discussion a "to-do date" and add to a student's To Do List as a reminder. Follow the steps in the article below to add a page to a student's To Do List:

Canvas: Assign “To-Do Dates” to Pages and Non-Graded Discussions (PSU resource)

Manage course discussions

Read this tutorial to learn how to monitor and manage discussions in your course:

How do I use the Discussions Index Page? (External resource)

NOTE: Information on the use of Piazza with Canvas can be found in the Advanced Canvas Learning Path.